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Healing to Tank: The Hybrid's Struggle
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Post by
Avallen
For druids and paladins, filling the role of tank is a struggle.
During my time playing World of Warcraft, I have played both of these characters to 70. With both characters, I intended to one thing: tank. The role of tank has always appealed to me for some reason - be it the heightened responsibility (and therefore, respect), or perhaps just the ability to step into most any raid without the same troubles as a strict DPS class. Regardless of my motives,
I did not start either of these characters with plans to DPS or heal
.
Despite this, my druid is Restoration, and my paladin is Holy.
I'll start with my paladin
. Avallen was my first character, and I still regard him as the character that I had the most fun on. On Avallen I learned heaps about game mechanics and class synergy. When I hit level 58, I headed to Outlands like most everyone else, and immediately saw the overabundance of tanks on my server. I knew that leveling protection was boring as watching paint dry (I had intended to level solely through instances) and there was no way I was going to respec Retribution (this was before the Retribution buffs) I gave in and respec'd Holy.
As Holy, I was able to hit 70, and gained the skills and instincts of a healer - judging how much damage a tank is taking per second, keeping groups up, using addons and macros to my advance, etc. However, I never stopped collecting the protection gear that dropped for me in instances.
At 70, I had a full set of green and blue tanking armor that put me at 200 spell damage, 490 defense, and a decent about of stamina. This would be enough to start tanking Karazhan. However, the guild that I was in didn't need a paladin tank - they needed a paladin healer. So once again, I appeased myself. I'll just stay Holy through Karazhan, and then once I have full-epic tanking gear I'll respec and start tanking Gruul's. They needed offtanks for Gruul's, right?
Over a month and a half I geared two full epic sets, one for tanking and one for healing. The guild I was in had grown, and by pulling some members from a smaller guild we were able to start running Gruul's Lair. From this smaller guild, we pulled three tanks. Week after week. So once again, I stayed Holy. And I healed. And while I may have been good at it,
I hated every second of it
.
Long story short, the guild I was in would break up, I would be picked up by another guild, and I would stay Holy. For a year and a half. And I healed. Begrudgingly. Before I retired Avallen, I had a set of T4/T5 equivalent tanking gear. I could solo-tank all of Karazhan easily, and probably could have taken on some of the earlier bosses in TK/SSC. But a paladin tank will always get doubt and worry compared to a warrior tank. My story is not an uncommon one - after all, everyone knows Paladins make great healers. It is unfortunate that, in order to gain the gear to fill the role of tank, they often must fill the role of healer first. And it spirals onwards.
On my druid
, which I restarted on a different server with, I leveled him full Feral. Once I hit 70 I built a basic tanking set, and started to work on gearing up for Karazhan. My guild is full clearing it, and last night I was asked to come in - as Restoration.
I can already see things repeating themselves. I did my best last night to pass on all healing gear that dropped to an equally-geared shaman, and roll on any feral tanking gear that dropped. Hopefully by buffing up my Feral gear and keeping my Resto gear full blues, I can sneak my way in as an offtank and then main tank for KZ runs.
Here's my questions for discussion:
Why do you think that hybrid classes often have to fill the role of an off-spec in order to gain gear for the spec they want to play?
Have you had an experience like this? How did you handle it?
Note:
I did not include shamans because I have not had a personal experience with shamans. However, I will concede that there are instances of shamans being forced to go Resto to get Elemental/Enhancement gear, and would love to hear about them.
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164127
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125410
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65116
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Post by
Sakkura
Paladins have it a lot easier as tanks than warriors. Far better abilities for 5-mans and heroics, and required for MH. So you get the best of both worlds - great for raids, great for 5-mans. Warriors are only any good in raids, and only for one spot.
Post by
Anichon
Switching Servers is always nice. Not
every
server is overpopulated with tanks and underpopulated with healers. Sometimes its vice-versa.
Post by
Howlle
I had the exact same thing with my druid and pally.
i was balance as my druid, but being on a server with hardly any tanks. i was forced to respec, took me ages to actually start getting good at it. on top of that, i was only just 70, so all the tank gear i had to buy on AH, then tank normals. now finally heroics.
on my pally, i am now geared for (and tank) MH/BT.
the guild i'm in actually have 2 paladin tanks.
but where i have the better holy gear and never get left behind the ppl who main heal, even being top in some cases :s
i'm the one who is asked to respec.
12 times in the last 3 weeks.
and healing is sooo boring compared to tanking. i was actually falling asleep in a raid the other night.
sadly all hybrid classes are expected to be capable and geared to act as the roles they have. if they don't main heal, they can sure as hell expect to alt it through their raiding life
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116684
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97210
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Post by
Avallen
ETA: Another problem is getting geared as a tank. Tanks are the most gear-dependent role, and it's been my experience the only way to become a Kara-ready tank is to run Kara.
Truth. It's kind of a vicious cycle.
"In order to tank Karazhan, you must be in at least half epics."
"In order to get at least half epics, you must tank Karazhan."
..or run waaaaay too many heroics.
And I think the reason why this becomes an issue is the split-duty aspect. An overgeared healer can compensate for an undergeared healer in a raid group, whereas a tank is in it by himself.
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99345
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146000
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Post by
d3xx
On Khaz'goroth they are screaming out for paly tanks. They are now the tank of choice for heroic 5mans. There is a shortage of healers, but an even greater shortage of tanks.
Post by
106896
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Post by
Philmckraken
My paladin is a tank first and foremost. I keep ret gear in the bank for the occasional vacation from getting hit in the face, but I keep no healing off-set. Healing does not appeal to me, so I don't do it. When we run heroics and healing plate drops, I'm the first one to hit "pass." The rest of the group asks me if I want it, and I always say "shard it."
The more off-spec healing gear I get, the more likely it is that they'll ask me to respec to holy. If they don't want me tanking anymore, I'll find someone else to tank for. That's the bottom line.
Post by
126531
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Post by
Philmckraken
no raid will want u to get out ur ret gear wen u are specced prot, cuz the damage just sux. they will want u to get out ur healing gear, and do sum healing when u dnt need to tank.
i lvled as a resto shaman from 1-70 and i thought it was alrite. was gd getting into instances all the time, cuz it was rare a properly specced healer wud show up.
i find healing fun, and i love raid healing as a resto shaman, its a lot of fun and it does take skill.
ive raided as elemental (picking up gear as i did heroics/kara) and its pretty boring. pressing the same button over and over jus gets tedious, however i do like the damage i can put out as elemental, it is quite satisfying.
my brother lvled his druid as tank, and he has always stayed tank. his respec cost is 2g i think lol hes never been asked to heal, and he doesnt have healing gear, only feral dps gear and tank gear.
Everyone has different preferences. You like healing, I don't. I like communicating in proper English, you apparently do not. What you do on your time is your business, but I'm not going to respec just to please everyone else in the group, at the cost of my own enjoyment.
Like Avallen said, once they convince you to do it once, you're doomed to it forever. Tank gear drops? The tank gets it. If he doesn't need it, the fury warrior will pick it up for their off-set. If you win the roll for the tier piece, you'll be expected to use it on healing gear. If your raid uses a "loot council" to determine who gets what, you can bet that they'll be dissapointed when they find out the epic gear they "gave" you isn't being used for their purposes.
Personally, I could care less if no raid group wants me as a ret paladin. When I need to grind out some dailies for money, I go ret. When I need a vacation from tanking, I go ret. My ret gear isn't that spectacular, but I'm never last on the damage meters when we run heroics. Until the raid leader starts picking up my WoW subscription, I call my own shots.
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126531
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65116
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Post by
Philmckraken
Have to agree on this tbh. On single tank fights (like Teron for example) you'll be expected to take out your healing gear and help out on raidhealing and dispelling. I don't really like it, but it's for the benefit to the guild.
If you can't see the bigger picture, and you're selfish because you just don't like to heal, even if it's for only a couple of minutes, then a lot of guilds will see that as if you don't care for the greater good of the guild. Because face it, our DPS, even in full dps gear, as protection, is worthless, however our healing can be a bit of help.
What you wrote phil, is as if you were recruited as a Holy paladin, not as a protection paladin. If a guild asks you to heal once, they won't expect you to heal for every single minute onwards. If they're any decent, and you were recruited as a protection tank, they will allow you to, what am I saying, they will expect you to get tanking tier pieces.
If you're the MT, there's no reason why you would be expected to pull out healing gear on single-tank fights.
As far as "the bigger picture," yes, there might be times where I'll have to OT and then heal/cleanse. However, if winning the fight will depend entirely on my carrying a full set of healing gear along with me, then that fight was lost before the raid went through the door. Other than those rare occasions, the healing gear takes up space that I could be using for anything else that might get more use.
My point was this: Whether or not you're being denied the chance to switch specs to something you might enjoy, or slowly being coerced into a role you don't want, it's a game, so don't let anyone else make you do something you won't enjoy, just for the sake of progression. Whether or not you play a hybrid shouldn't matter. How many rogues are asked to roll tank alts "just in case?"
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